Medicine Buddha
& Nagarjuna Retreat
with Geshe Michael Roach
October 11-20, 2024,
Diamond Mountain Retreat
In-Person & Online Retreat
Diamond Mountain
Oct 11 - 2o
Diamond Mountain Retreat Center and Asian Classics Institute are pleased to announce the 2024 Medicine Buddha & Nagarjuna Retreat with Geshe Michael Roach. It will be held October 11-20, 2024, at Diamond Mountain Retreat Center in Bowie, Arizona, USA. And as usual, the special sauce that makes Medicine Buddha prayers and mantras work is emptiness! We will fire up our understanding of this important Buddhist idea with our ongoing study of Nagarjuna's Wisdom, possibly the most important text ever written on emptiness.
Even if you've been to other Medicine Buddha retreats, there are many new things to learn at this year’s event. There will be new teachings and special classes with certified ACI teachers and guests. Medicine Buddha is beloved among Buddhists everywhere, because he helps us bring healing to a troubled world, torn by strife and war, reeling from natural disasters and too much hate. This year we will focus on ways to bring both peace and healing to our world, much needed these days. We will plant the seeds for a better future, as well as one with more and more engaged people who have a bodhisattva’s way of life.
During Medicine Buddha, we will continue our study of the King of the Lords of Wishing Jewels: A Practice of Presenting Offerings to the Medicine Buddha, by Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, known as the Great Fifth. Geshe Michael will also refer to points taught by Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen (~1565-1662), author of the main Medicine Buddha sadhana we have been studying in the Medicine Buddha retreats since 2020. Lobsang Chukyi Gyeltsen is also known as the first Panchen Lama because he was the first to receive the title during his lifetime. We also have a shorter sadhana called Smashing Obstacles to Dust by Lord Atisha in our repertoire. Studying these amazing works will help us deepen and enhance our practice of Medicine Buddha mantras and dharanis, and understand in greater detail the marriage of karma and emptiness.
The retreat will feature classes with Geshe Michael, special ceremonies such as an empowerment, an Offering to the Teachers, a serene Butter Lamp Ceremony, and a Fire Offering to plant seeds for peace. There will be live meditations and yoga. Additionally, we will have three days of silent retreat built into the program for personal practice and integration of these great ideas. Silence is incredibly rare in our modern times and giving yourself the gift of retreat can set you up to plant some incredibly powerful seeds and actualize your current seeds for fast ripening.
If you’re joining us at Diamond Mountain, we will be providing you with all the guidance and support you need for these three days, including creating protection boundaries and offering cakes. The power of doing retreat together with 80 other people in our secluded retreat valley in Arizona cannot compare to any other experience in the world.
If you’re unable to come to Diamond Mountain, we will provide you with all the tools you need to set yourself up for your own personal, private retreat at home. These private retreats are an incredible opportunity for you to go deeper into the teachings and to integrate the intangibles of our practices into your daily life.
Complete the Healing Transformation
Advanced Medicine Buddha Practice
For four years since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been learning and implementing the healing power of the Medicine Buddha practices and mantras together at Diamond Mountain, along with the profound emptiness teachings from Nagarjuna’s Wisdom that make them work. And as we have engaged in these practices–the early level of the Diamond Way through a proper empowerment, teachings, and taking the bodhisattva vows–many of us have experienced deep successes and experiences around our growing international community of Medicine Buddha practitioners.
Class 1: Purifying Yourself: Stages of Visualization I —Ven. Jigme & Rebecca Vinacour
Class 2: Purifying Others: Stages of Visualization II —Ven. Gyesle & Inna Ivanina
Class 3: Stepping Upwards: Becoming Medicine Buddha —Ven. Sunam & Timothy Lowenhaupt
Class 4: Questions & Answers —Panel of Senior Teachers
Class 5: Preparing for Medicine Buddha Retreat —Ven. Sunam & Timothy Lowenhaupt
Three-Day Silent Retreat
Class 6: Secret Signs: Witnessing the Extraordinary —Rob Haggerty
Class 7: Questions & Answers —Panel of Senior Teachers
These practices also can be an important doorway that unlocks the entry point into the highest teachings of the Diamond Way. With the application of some fresh advanced techniques along with what we already know about Medicine Buddha, we will be adding even more depth and dimension to our Medicine Buddha practices.
In this Medicine Buddha & Nagarjuna retreat, Geshe Michael’s subtle and profound presentation of the final chapters of Nagarjuna’s Wisdom will be enriched by ACI senior teachers, who will provide some key, new, and advanced techniques that will empower your healing practices for the deeper transformation of both you and those who are in great suffering.
For those of you joining us online, these additional classes are available as part of our Gold and Lapis Lazuli packages. Your subscribing to these packages helps support the arduous task of keeping our teaching programs as low in cost as possible. If you would like to attend and cannot afford the package prices, please click here to request a scholarship. We hope this will help reduce any financial burden so you can join us. To attend this program, you must also receive the required empowerment. Please see the schedule for the date and time of the empowerment to be given during the first days of the program.
Online retreat @ Home
The Medicine Buddha & Nagarjuna Retreat will be offered live and online. You can sign up for free basic online classes (our Rays of Light package), or take advantage of our Gold or Lapis Lazuli online retreat packages to get a more in-depth experience of the retreat. We hope you will be inspired to sign up for a special package.
Gold and Lapis Lazuli packages give you two additional bonuses:
First, special access to extra goodies that free Rays of Light sign-ups don't include: Gold sponsors ($99 online) get pre-recorded yoga classes in addition to all the wonderful Medicine Buddha retreat content, as well as taking center stage with Geshe Michael in the daily Q&A sessions. This gives you priority for getting your questions answered every day. You will also have exclusive access to special classes and Q&A led by senior Asian Classics Institute teachers and special guests during the retreat, who will take you deep into the joys, mysteries and challenges of doing retreat.
Second, Lapis Lazuli sponsors ($499 online) get everything Gold sponsors get, with the addition of special access to three past years of Medicine Buddha Retreat classes. Listen to and gain the wisdom Geshe Michael and others shared about the Medicine Buddha practice in 2021, 2022, and 2023. You also get something that is beyond price: by sponsoring the retreat at the Lapis Lazuli level, you will get the incredibly good karma of making this retreat available to many people around the world. Why is this? Because Diamond Mountain Retreat Center and Asian Classics Institute will use your sponsorship contribution to help many more people get access to the retreat who couldn’t otherwise afford it. Your Lapis Lazuli sponsorship will also help to defray the costs of technology and staff to Zoom the retreat around the world, make it available in up to 17 languages daily, and allow us to record and archive the proceedings so they will be preserved for future generations.
Come learn, live or online, with Geshe Michael. Plant the seeds to create peace and healing in a war-torn, disaster-ridden world with Medicine Buddha practice. And learn about the magic ingredient that will make it all work: emptiness.
ONLINE RETREAT PACKAGES
By Donation
Daily Classes with Geshe Michael Roach
Access to Videos
Offering to the Teachers Ceremony
Butterlamp Ceremony
Fire Offering Ceremony
Retreat Schedules to Suit your Availability (Full, Light, Self-Paced)
PDF: Sadhana, Sutra, Commentary, Nagarjuna’s Wisdom
$99
Daily Classes with Geshe Michael Roach
Access to Videos
Offering to the Teachers Ceremony
Butterlamp Ceremony
Fire Offering Ceremony
Retreat Schedules to Suit your Availability (Full, Light, Self-Paced)
PDF: Sadhana, Sutra, Commentary, Nagarjuna’s Wisdom
8 Pre-Recoreded Yoga Classes (Dedicated To The Medicine Buddhas) produced by Yoga Studies Institute
Daily Q&A with Geshe Michael Roach and Senior Teachers
Classes & Q&A led by ACI Senior Teachers
$499
Daily Classes with Geshe Michael Roach
Access to Videos
Offering to the Teachers Ceremony
Butterlamp Ceremony
Fire Offering Ceremony
Retreat Schedules to Suit your Availability (Full, Light, Self-Paced)
PDF: Sadhana, Sutra, Commentary, Nagarjuna’s Wisdom
8 Pre-Recoreded Yoga Classes (Dedicated To The Medicine Buddhas) produced by Yoga Studies Institute
Daily Q&A with Geshe Michael Roach and Senior Teachers
Classes & Q&A led by ACI Senior Teachers
Access To The Classes From Medicine Buddha Retreat 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023
Incredibly Good Karma by making this retreat available to so many people worldwide.
Why do you need empowerment
to attend the retreat?
Also, you will need a Medicine Buddha empowerment to fully participate in the retreat. Not to worry! We will be holding an empowerment during the first full day of the event, in person and streamed online. (If you received an empowerment in a previous Medicine Buddha retreat, there is no need to take it again, although you are welcome to if you wish. It’s a wonderful way to recommit to your purpose and practice with everyone present.) Why do you need empowerment to attend the retreat? The Medicine Buddha practice is divided into two parts. There is one part which we call the open practice. Everybody can study and use this beautiful practice in daily life. And then there is a secret part which you can only study if you receive a blessing or empowerment from the lama. So we will start our Medicine Buddha retreat with two ceremonies. The first one instills in us the motivation that we are not only striving for our own goals, but we are developing the wish in our hearts to help everybody. And the second is a blessing—or empowerment—that permits you to study the secret texts of Medicine Buddha. They are very deep, and you need the empowerment to study them. Just as a solid understanding of emptiness makes your Medicine Buddha mantras actually work, receiving the empowerment will make your Medicine Buddha practice much more powerful.
ABOUT GESHE MICHAEL ROACH
Geshe Michael Roach grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was an honors student with an interest in religion and social issues. He was awarded a scholarship to Princeton University and after graduation he went to study and live at Rashi Gempil Ling, with Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobsang Tharchin. In 1995 he completed his studies with Khen Rinpoche and at Sera Monastery in India, and became the first American to be awarded the Geshe degree. While completing this work, he also developed and taught the seven-year ACI Foundations Study Program, which parallels the same core information taught at the Tibetan Buddhist monastery. That original program of 18 courses captures the essence of the six Great Books of Buddhism, as a means to train the next generations of western Buddhist teachers. Asian Classics Institute began with the mission to provide the recordings online, live teachings and by correspondence for anyone who would like to pursue these studies.
We truly appreciate any help you can give!
By joining us for The Medicine Buddha & Nagarjuna retreat, you're not only investing in your own spiritual growth but also supporting the continuation of these precious teachings.
As a not-for-profit organization, Asian Classics Institute also is asking for financial support to make this event as affordable as possible for anyone to attend. With your help, we can offer scholarships and work-study positions.
Additionally, we have sponsorship opportunities to cover major expenses during the event:
Ceremonies (offering to the teachers, the fire offering for peace)
Goal: $2,000Technology fees (like equipment, zoom fees, and dedicated staff)
Goal: $5,000Teacher support (food and transportation as ACI teachers, including Geshe Michael do not get paid for their teaching services)
Goal: $10,000Scholarships (for online attendance and in-person)
Goal: $15,000